Garage Salem

The season is officially underway for bargain hunters in Salem Oregon who enjoy looking for treasures in other peoples' trash. Not really trash but you get the idea. For all of it's shortfalls, one thing you can't complain about in this town is the abundance of yard sales during the summer. Just a quick cruise down Kuebler and you'll find cardboard marketing on every major intersection baiting you to neighborhoods where families cover their yards with old items looking for new places to call home. They don't really have listings anywhere for top cities for holding garage sales but I bet Salem would score well. In scoring well, I don't mean you're going to find Picasos or Ming vases mistakenly stickered at the prices of the other items. I wouldn't bring a carload of loot that you found on Salem streets to the Antique Roadshow. If you're looking for useful items that still have use left in them, there's plenty to choose from.

To start with, tools are a hot item. Every hand tool electric or otherwise that I own, I've found on sale in my neighbors' garages. Ladders and edgers are always abundant. Shovels, I have two. And all of it is for pennies on the dollar if you bargain.

Baby items. About half the garage sales have baby clothes and toys. This is where you're most likely to find new things, like clothes that baby grew too quickly to ever fit into. Nowadays there are so many things to buy for our little treasures that everybody has loads of barely used items stored in boxes buried in the corners of the garage. It's probably where you can find the best deals too. Here's a negotiating tip for you, bring your baby with you when you go for the purchase. When the homeowner sees your cute baby they won't be able to resist your low ball offer. In fact, they'll suggest other things that you can take with you that might go with what you're seeking to buy. We had a garage sale a couple of years ago with some baby items. A nice young couple came in that hadn't had their baby yet. We just gave them a ton of stuff for almost nothing. We were compensated with the good feeling knowing that a new family was going to have some of it's needs met at almost no cost.

Estate sale Sunday. There's a group of people that do estate sales every weekend. I've seen them before at homes where the elderly occupants have either deceased or were moved into a retirement home. If you come across one of these sales, their deal is half off everything that's left on Sunday. Because these folks are good at the bargaining game the sticker prices are usually high. I tell them, I'm not going to be around Sunday and offer half price on Saturday. Sometimes they go for it if they think it's something they won't be able to sell or if it's late in the day Saturday.

It's fun even if you're just someone who enjoys looking through other people's stuff and homes. Renewing the life of items is a good way to protect our landfills from overflowing and the cost savings are significant. Good luck bargain hunting. I'll see you out there.